<p>I checked online this morning and found out that my daughter has been accepted as a Freshman student in the Graphic Design program at UC DAAP for the Autumn 2008 term. </p>
<p>Here is more information about her application:</p>
<p>Ohio resident
Online Application Date: October 30, 2007
GPA - 3.5 UW
SAT - 1340 combined math and critical reading
ACT - 28
Class Rank - Top 20%</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter. I have a daughter in DAAP, and I can tell you it is a fabulous school. I should warn you that she should be prepared to work VERY hard. There will be a number of evenings that she will work very late due to project demands.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to either post your question or send me a private message.</p>
<p>Thanks very much, taxguy.</p>
<p>Having read your posts, I think that we share something in common. My daughter was also interested in Pratt until we visited there.</p>
<p>Your college visit reports for both institutions were very helpful as we reviewed our own analysis of the pros and cons of each school.</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter! I just found out today I got into the 5yr fashion design program! (And Cincinnatus!)</p>
<p>Congratulations, kalonity!</p>
<p>I did not expect to hear from UC till the 31st, but I received an invitation to the Cincinnatus Scholarship competition today in the mail, so I logged on to check my status and I'm in! Two questions: Does anyone know what the status is on whether Graphic Design and Digital Design are going to merge? Also, what exactly is the scholarship competition? Is it specific to your major? Thanks!</p>
<p>Congrats to all on the DAAP acceptances! My son also was accepted into the DAAP Digital Design program. </p>
<p>I didn't know they were thinking of merging the Digital Design and Graphic Design programs. Does anyone know the reasons for the potential merger?</p>
<p>Helen3 asks,"Does anyone know what the status is on whether Graphic Design and Digital Design are going to merge? ?</p>
<p>Response: yes, graphic design and digital design do have a lot of overlap. They both take a number of courses in layout and topography and use computers a lot, although graphic design is more "paper" oriented and more 2D oriented. I know that they encourage digital designers to take a few graphic design courses and vice versa as well.</p>
<p>There was some discussion of a merger,but I haven't seen anything in the works of late.</p>
<p>What is more imminent is that UC will eventually go to a "semester" system. They are working on the logistics of switching by 2013 or even earlier.</p>
<p>As an aside,when you do go down for the Cincinnatus Scholarship competition, go to both Skyline Chile and Graeters Ice Cream. They give you a real sense of "Cincinnati" and are both great experiences.</p>
<p>Also, the Cincinnatus guarantees a minimum payout of $2,000 per year (instate) and $5,000 per year for out-of-state as long as :</p>
<ol>
<li>You do 30 hours a year of community service</li>
<li>You maintain a 3.25. GPA.</li>
</ol>
<p>helen3, Here's the link to the Cincinnatus Scholarship. Check it out, it has all the details.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the info. I would never have even known about UC actually, were it not for what I read about it over in the art schools thread. I liked that it sounded like a serious art school inside of a university. The only traditional art school that I liked enough from their web site to visit was Pratt-- I should hear from them by the end of the week. I visited UC in October, and I really liked it. At the DAAP information session, we were told that merging graphic design and digital design was under consideration. And the tour guide turned out to be a DAAP digital design student-- he said he thought this was likely. That's why I asked about it. </p>
<p>I did have some Skyline Chili when I visited-- I will try the ice cream in Feb I guess. I liked what little I saw of the city of Cincinnati, and the campus seemed as safe or maybe even safer that my neighborhood in Chicago.</p>
<p>I looked at the web site for info about Cincinnatus. The most specific information it has is that "competing students will be assessed on academic abilities, creative skills and leadership potential. Aptitude for community service will be an important criterion, since service is a highly regarded value of the university and at the heart of the scholarship's namesake." But I still don't get what we really do-- answer questions? I hope it's not giving speeches. Does everyone dress up or can you just wear jeans? The scholarship thing is pretty important. I was also accepted at U of I (Champaign), which would be in-state tuition. The design program there is not as good UC's I don't think, but it seems like overall, the quality and reputation of the school as a whole is better. Glad to have some time to think about all this over break. Thanks again.</p>
<p>Hi Helen. Trust me: UC's school of Design is internationally known among design firms. It has a MUCH better reputation than University of Illinois in design. For Design or Urban Planning, UC is on par with Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Cornell, RISD etc. Also, you will graduate from UC with 1.5 years of PAID experience,which is a MAJOR deal. In addtion, the coop jobs do reduce the tuition considerably starting with your prejunior year to an extent that it won't be much more than Illinois.</p>
<p>There is no specific dress code for Cincinnatus, and there are no speeches that you have to give. You can wear anything you want. I think that most of the score for the Cincinnatus is already pre-determined. There is some kind of additional score on leadership such as complementing folks for what they suggest or do, and other leadership skills.</p>
<p>I think I was unclear in my last post. I agree that UC seems like a better design school than U of I, but I meant the reputation of the whole university. Or maybe it's just because I live in Illinois-- no one here knows anything about UC, except for about the sports teams, the Bearcats. One friend's mom is an architect and she knew all about DAAP. My sister has two friends that applied to CCM but until they got there, they didn't really get that it was a part of UC. Thanks again for all your help.</p>
<p>Helen, yes you are correct, University of Illinois is more well-known by the average "vern" on the street. However, when it comes for design, music, musical theater or criminal justice, the folks in the "know" about these areas know about Cincinnati. Frankly, and this is my opinion, I couldn't care less if my next door neighber hasn't heard about Cincinnati and neither should you.</p>
<p>Actually, the College of Fine and Applied Arts at UIUC is well respected and highly ranked for many programs. We visited both UIUC and UC and liked the UC program better for graphic design. The UIUC program admitted being weak in the area of computer art, although they were interviewing candidates with computer experience for an open professor position while we were there. We also were warned that their portfolio review process is extremely cutthroat, and most freshman do not get admitted to the graphic design program. However, the work we saw by foundation students was outstanding.</p>
<p>As for the merging of Digital and Graphic design, it’s always changing. I applied at UC for Graphic Design. When I applied, I was told to increase my chances I should apply to Digital as well because they would be merging anyway. I was told then (2007) that they would be merging in just a year or two. Then it was pushed back to 2012. Now, they’re saying 2013. However, now that we are moving to Semesters they are more confused than ever. All I’m saying is don’t take their predictions too seriously.</p>
<p>For the first freshman year, all “Design” (both graphic, digital, industrial, and fashion) take the exact same classes. Fundamentals of Design. We learn about drawing, color, form, space, etc. Then we split for the rest of our years and get more specific.</p>
<p>In Digital, we spend a lot more time in motion/animation and 3D as compared to 2D and print in Graphic. I’ve noticed one thing I feel we Digital kids are missing out on as compared to the Graphic kids and that is they seem to have a lot better sense of typography. Which, in Design, is kind of a huge deal. That’s not to say that everyone in Digital stinks at typography. I’m just saying as a whole. They even created their own typeface as one of their projects. They, however, miss out on a lot of the technological aspects of design… ex: they can design an awesome website, but can they make it work? We Digital kids can. We spend a lot of time learning code: html, javascript, actionscript, etc. </p>
<p>To anyone torn between the two programs, I advise you visit the DAAP Works Show at the end of Fall and Spring Quarters. You can walk around and look at all the projects Freshman-Senior students have recently completed and actually see the difference.</p>